Sikhs Protest in London for Bhullar, Khalistan

LONDON: More than 2,000 Sikhs protesting against the recent Supreme Court order upholding the death sentence of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar laid siege to the Indian High Commission on Monday.

The protest spilled across London's high-security area, including the road in front of 10 Downing Street, home of the British prime minister.

The demands made by the protesters were to "remove professor Bhullar from death row" and that the 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict "should be released without further delay".

Called in Bhullar's name, the protest ended with the majority of the slogans calling for a separate state of Khalistan. Many protesters, including a large contingent of women and children, carried banners and wore T-shirts calling for the creation of Khalistan.

"India is the new China with its blatant violation of human rights," Ravinder Singh, one of the rally's organizers, told TOI. "Human-right abuses against Kashmiris, Assamese and Sikhs are rampant. On one side, British PM David Cameron is talking about genocide in Libya and Syria. So why isn't he looking at the atrocities against Sikhs in India?"

Sikh groups also took out rallies in Canada, the US, New Zealand and several regions of Europe.